EAST HARTFORD, CT - OCTOBER 31: Mark Harrison #81 of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights celebrates his touchdown with teammate Shamar Graves #3 in the second half against the Connecticut Huskies on October 31, 2009 at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Photo: Elsa, ST

NEWPORT, R.I. -- In a corner of the main ballroom of the Viking Hotel, Rutgers wide receiver Mark Harrison stood before a couple of video recorders and about a half dozen newspaper reporters and faced the same questions that he's heard over and over since the end of last season.

What happened? Or more specifically, what didn't happen.

Two seasons ago, in 2010, Harrison exploded onto the Big East football scene. As a true sophomore, the 6-foot-3 speedster caught 44 passes for 829 yards and nine touchdowns, earning the Scarlet Knights' offensive Most Valuable Player award. And heading into his junior season, he was the conference's leading receiver in touchdown catches (11) and yards per reception (18.61).

But in 2011, Harrison, who played at Bunnell of Stratford, caught just 14 passes for 274 yards and only one touchdown. Caught in the whirlwind that was Mohamed Sanu, Harrison was suddenly lost in the shadows of Sanu's Big East-record 115 receptions and 1,206 receiving yards. In fact, three other receivers had more receptions than Harrison did last season, making him all the more determined to forget what happened a year ago and fight to become the next great Rutgers receiver.

Just like he was in 2010.

"Honestly, I'm not even looking at what happened last year," Harrison, the former Connecticut Post high school male athlete of the year, said at Big East football media day last week. "I'm focused on what I can do this year to help my team and make those plays that I know I can make. My main goal is to stay focused and work hard in practice."

Why? Because the next level -- the National Football League -- is just over the horizon. With height and speed and three-year career marks at Rutgers of 63 receptions, 1,186 yards and 11 touchdowns, Harrison is going to get a lot of attention this season from pro scouts, especially with the way head coach Kyle Flood says Harrison goes after the football.

"He attacks it and I love that," said Flood, who was named as the new head coach in January after Greg Schiano left to become head coach of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers. "If I were a receivers coach, I'd probably be talking about his speed, but as an old offensive line coach, when I'm watching the blocking and the ball getting thrown, Mark was always attacking the football. That's what I love about his game."

Harrison had his breakout game against Cincinnati late in the 2010 season, attacking the football like never before. OK, so the Bearcats rolled to a 69-38 win, but Harrison personally carried Rutgers, catching 10 passes for 240 yards and four touchdowns.

With Harrison headed into his junior campaign, the sky seemed to be the limit, but Sanu emerged, and Harrison suffered a "head injury" on Oct. 29 against West Virginia. He only played sparingly in the Scarlet Knights' last three games and did not catch a single pass.

So, how does Rutgers get Harrison back in the offensive flow?

"I don't know if we have to do anything to `get him back,'" Flood said. "It was just that last year, we had a kid in Mohamed Sanu who's playing for the (Cincinnati) Bengals right now that emerged as a dominant football player. And he became the focal point of our offense. He was the No. 1 playmaker on offense. We did a lot of things to get him the ball and he broke (Pitt receiver) Larry Fitzgerald's record for receptions.

"Now, I don't know if our offense is going to go in that direction where one guy is going to have that many (receptions), because we have a talented receiving core. But I think what we have in Mark Harrison is a guy that we feel will win the defender matchups in our conference, and we're going to rely on him to do that. I think you're going to see his production go up."

Harrison certainly hopes so. And if his comments at media day were any indication, he's ready to fill that Sanu role and take that first step toward the next level.

"I'm excited about this team and where we're going to be going," he said. "The expectations that we have for this team this year, our focus has been that nothing's going to stop us if we continue to work hard every day on the field. We're as ready as we can be right now."